Fitzpatrick: City budget plan meets tax cap, school budget doesn’t

Thursday

Apr 17, 2014 at 3:15 AM

By Liz Markhlevskayalmark@fosters.com

ROCHESTER — City Manager Daniel Fitzpatrick on Tuesday presented the proposed municipal budget for next year, and while the city portion of the budget meets the tax cap requirement, the School Department budget does not.

The proposed budget for next year totals $91,856,304, which includes funding for school and city operations. Fitzpatrick said while the city’s portion of the budget is right up to the tax cap allowance, the budget recommended by the School Board is $71,961 over the cap.

It will be up to the City Council whether to override the cap.

The estimated tax rate impact of the proposed budget has not yet been calculated, according to Finance Director Blaine Cox. According to Fitzpatrick, the budget proposal for next year is 1.6 percent lower than this year’s revised budget. He said the revised budget includes appropriations made by the City Council during the budget approval last spring, as well as additional projects approved by the council throughout the current fiscal year.

One such project, for example, was the approximately $1 million worth of security upgrades for the School District which were approved by the City Council about two months ago.

The budget amount the City Council initially approved for the current fiscal year was not readily available. While the School Department’s proposed budget currently includes staff reductions, including layoffs, the city’s side of the proposal does not. Fitzpatrick said the city’s side of the proposed budget also does not include hiring of any additional staff, despite the Police and Fire departments requesting additional employees this year.

Fitzpatrick said lower-than-expected health insurance and retirement costs have helped him put the budget together, but including any additional staff in the budget would require overriding the tax cap.

Fitzpatrick said the biggest challenge in putting the budget together was dealing with the city’s growth, and balancing demands with limitations of the tax cap.